The Viceroy’s Daughters
The Viceroy’s Daughters: The Lives of the Curzon Sisters by Anne de Courcy The aristocratic Curzon sisters were the daughters of Lord Curzon, confidants of royalty, and friends, lovers, and […]
The Splendid and the Vile
The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson Given the enormous number of Churchill biographies, especially of the war years, one might wonder about the necessity of yet another. Eric […]
Operation Mincemeat
Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre The English have always appreciated, even treasured, eccentricity, and nowhere was this more evident than in the staffing of the British Secret Service during WW […]
Churchill’s Citadel
Churchill’s Citadel, Chartwell and the Gatherings Before the Storm by Katherine Carter Do we really need another Winston Churchill book? Probably not, but author Katherine Carter, curator at Chartwell, takes […]
A VoyageAround the Queen
A Voyage Around the Queen by Craig Brown Craig Brown’s unconventional biography of Queen Elizabeth II was a disappointment. By all accounts, QEII never said (publicly at least) anything interesting, […]
The Siege
The Siege by Ben Macintyre On the morning of April 30, 1980, six heavily armed young Arab men stormed the Iranian Embassy in London and captured the twenty-six people on […]
The Palace Papers
The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor—the Truth and the Turmoil by Tina Brown The Palace Papers by Tina Brown is the latest in a long line of royal […]
The Crown in Crisis
The Crown in Crisis, Countdown to the Abdication by Alexander Larman I was disappointed in The Crown in Crisis, Countdown to the Abdication, a day-by-day account of the last month […]
The Churchills in Love and War
The Churchills in Love and War by Mary S. Lovell From the time that war hero the Duke of Marlborough built Blenheim Palace in 1704, the Churchill family has occupied […]
The Churchill Sisters
The Churchill Sisters by Rachel Trethewey Without question, Winston Churchill was one of the great statesmen of the 20thC, but as a parent, less great. This is somewhat understandable as […]
The Bolter
The Bolter by Frances Osborne A bolter, as readers of the novels of Nancy Mitford know, refers not to a horse, but rather an unconventional (or wicked) woman who leaves […]
Believing the Lie
Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George I have (almost) forgiven Elizabeth George for killing one of my favorite characters a few books ago. And when I read her latest Inspector […]
The Confidence Men
The Confidence Men by Margalit Fox It all started with a homemade Ouija board. In an isolated WW I prisoner-of-war camp in Yozgad, Central Anatolia, British prisoner Harry Jones, a […]
The Appeal
The Appeal by Janice Hallett The Appeal, an epistolary novel, opens with a memo from a lawyer asking two of his colleagues to review a case file. “It is best […]
Sisters of Fortune
Sisters of Fortune by Jehanne Wake Decades before the “Dollar Princesses” like Consuela Vanderbilt stormed British society, there were the Caton sisters of Maryland. The Caton sisters were descendants of […]